2nd Saturday Civil War Series: The Pennsylvania Reserves in the Gettysburg Campaign with Eric Mohney

In Person in the Lincoln Gallery at ACFL&MH!

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At daybreak on July 2nd, 1863, roughly 2800 dusty Pennsylvanians trudged wearily, but steadily, westward from McSherrystown, Pennsylvania. They had left the defenses of Washington to join the 5th Army Corps a few days earlier. They had lagged behind since catching up at Frederick, Maryland, on June 28th. Officers in the 5th Corps complained that these men couldn’t keep up. It was believed that they were soft from their time in the works around the National Capitol. 

But these men were anything but green. They were veterans through and through, and this certainly wasn’t their first campaign. They had a fearsome reputation. After all, these were the men who had routed JEB Stuart at Dranesville, killed Turner Ashby at Harrisonburg, held Stonewall Jackson from overrunning Porter’s Corps at Mechanicsville, had been the Army’s fire brigade at Gaines’ Mill, stemmed the gray tide at Charles City Crossroads, with the Regulars saved Pope’s Army from total destruction at Second Bull Run, forced Longstreet’s left off of South Mountain, made first contact at Antietam, and had broken Jackson’s line at Fredericksburg. These men wearing the sky blue Maltese cross were the Pennsylvania Reserves, and they were determined to “conquer on the soil of their native state or perish.”

Eric Mohney is an independent researcher, founding member of the PRVC Historical Society, Army veteran, and former Gettysburg podcaster.